IRELAND’S TOWCESTER PROGRESS BY NUMBERS

Ian Fortune

For the final time in this year’s Star Sports & TRC English Derby at Towcester, we break down how the Irish raiding party fared on Saturday night.

Of course, Graham Holland had another memorable night seeing three of his four strong team progress and he will now be responsible for the favourite and second favourite in Saturday’s final.

Clona Duke and Swords Rex were simply different class to their rivals in their respective heats and the pair will meet for the first time in the classic in the decider. Gaytime Nemo also ran a fine race behind Clona Duke to progress, while it just wasn’t meant to be for their strong running kennel companion Jacktavern Bella, while Burj Khalifa and Ballymac Finn also ran out of luck.

Below we’ve highlighted some of the stats from the quarter finals focusing on the Irish runners.

Number of Irish trained winners in semi-finals:

2 from a possible 2 (Ireland had runners in each of the two semis)

Number of Irish trained qualifiers:

3 (from 5 – Ireland had 6 runners but only 5 could possible qualify)

Breakdown of Irish qualifiers:

Graham Holland (3 from 4)

Swords Rex

Clona Duke

Gaytime Nemo

WHERE THE IRISH FINISHED

A full breakdown of where the 6 Irish trained greyhounds finished in the semi-finals. 

Heat 1

1^st Clona Duke

2^nd Gaytime Nemo

4^th Burj Khalifa

6^th Ballymac Finn

Heat 2

1^st Swords Rex

5^th Jacktavern Bella